In early 1912, two seemingly unrelated events occurred in
different parts of the United States that would later become
closely interconnected. In January, the American Institute of
Electrical Engineers (AIEE), a successful association since 1884,
opened a Central Indiana Section centered on Indianapolis. Then, in
May, a group of engineers in New York not satisfied with the AIEE's
focus on power engineering formed their own association, the
Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE). With its focus on the new field
of electronics and, ultimately, computing, the IRE was to see the
greatest growth in the long term. In 1936 a Central Indiana Section
was formed for IRE. The IRE and AIEE sections worked closely
together, so there was little friction when the IRE and AIEE merged
to form IEEE in 1963.

Today the Central Indiana Section is a large rectangular area
covering 150 diagonal miles (250 km) comprising 39 counties. That
area includes many fine colleges and universities, several with
IEEE student branches. Indiana University in Bloomington has
perhaps the greatest name recognition, but from an IEEE
perspective, the most important is Purdue University in West
Lafayette. As an early land-grant college, Purdue has long focused
on engineering and technology. Much important computer work has
been done there over the years, and its involvement with IEEE has
been strong, especially in recent years. The current dean of
engineering is 2007 IEEE President Leah Jamieson.

Thus, this auspicious 100th anniversary marks a good time for
the engineer to take a busman's holiday to central Indiana.
Interestingly, however, the original focus of engineering activity
in the section was not at the universities, but in Indianapolis,
and you could do far worse than to visit "the Crossroads of
America." Today of course Indianapolis is perhaps best known as a
tourist, convention, and sports mecca with a particular focus on
motor sports—the 2012 running of the Indianapolis 500 is held in
May, and the Brickyard 400 is due in August.

Like Chicago, Indianapolis combined its central transportation
location with access to both agricultural and industrial raw
materials to become a manufacturing powerhouse over the course of
the 19th century. Circumstances led it to become one of the early
hubs of the emerging automobile industry in the late 19th century,
explaining the focus on automotive sports to this day. Even after
that industry became more centralized in Michigan, Indianapolis was
a key player in the supply chain. Prestolite Electric, still around
today as a global manufacturer of automobile electrical systems
(although now headquartered inMichigan), was founded in
Indianapolis in 1911 to produce the first automobile headlights for
night driving. As aviation grew, Indianapolis became a major player
in that field as well.

It is in aviation where the story of Indianapolis first
interests the computer and electronics engineer, so let's take a
brief three-stop tour starting on the eastern outskirts of the city
at 6000 East 21st Street, just off the juncture of Interstates 70
and 485. Because of its location, resources, and expertise, the US
Navy chose this site in 1942 to open the Naval Ordnance Plant
Indianapolis to manufacture the famous Norden Bombsight, an
important early application of analog computing. NOPI went on to
become a major R&D center for US Navy computing and electronics
(renamed the Navy Avionics Facility Indianapolis in 1956 and the
Naval Air Warfare Center Indianapolis in 1992).

Now take I-70 into downtown. The civilian story of electronics
and computing begins in the 1940s when RCA chose Indianapolis as
its manufacturing center for a new technology, television. Nothing
remains on the ground of that episode, but the current Indiana
Convention Center, across from Victory Field and Lucas Oil Stadium,
was the site of the RCA Dome (aka the Hoosier Dome), the main
sports venue in the city from 1984 to 2007.

The RCA experience increased Indianapolis's role as a center of
electronics. One of the local RCA spin-offs was Industrial
Development Engineering Associates (IDEA), which developed and
manufactured home TV antenna boosters. The young Texas Instrument
company was looking for a partner to develop and manufacture the
first commercial transistor radio based on its solid-state
technology (the first commercial...

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